But you can be a lot more of who you already are.

When you put most your energy into developing your natural talents, extraordinary growth is possible.

There is no way I could become the next Michael Jordan.  For one thing, I am only 6 feet.  Right there my genetics have made it extremely hard for me to make it into the NBA.  That coupled with the fact that I am a white boy who can’t jump and the fact that so many others have much more raw basketball talent than I really slims my chances of being an All Star down to almost zero.

Your efforts are much more effectively spent leveraging your own talents.  You don’t have to learn country guitar if you are a heavy metal shredder.  You do not need to master acoustic folk songwriting if you are a funk machine.  Of course it doesn’t hurt to be exposed to new things and styles.  After all, you may discover a hidden talent or passion within yourself.  But if you know you aren’t something, then don’t waster your time trying to be whatever that is!

There is a great formula in the opening chapters of Tom Rath’s Strengths Finder 2.0:

Talent X Investment = Strength

Talent: A Natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving

Investment: The time spent practicing, developing your skills, and building your knowledge base.

Strength: The ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance.

Building your talents into strengths requires practive and hard work.  If you are born with the ability to build large biceps, but you do not exercise these muscles regularly, they will not develop.  Much like mastering the guitar.  You may have an uncanny talent for music and guitar, but if you don’t practice and strive to improve, you will never maximize your guitar potential.

So what are your talents?  What are you passionate about?   Are you sure you aren’t trying to be something that you are not?

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